Collaborative Research: Landscape connectivity and the movement ecology of plant and animal communities

运动是地球上几乎所有生命的基本属性。迁徙的需求是由各种各样的需求驱动的，包括逃离恶劣的天气，在新的地方建立人口，以及获取食物和配偶。理解和预测运动的程度对于了解生物体为什么以及如何在它们所处的地方发生至关重要。它对预测生境变化和气候变化对生物多样性的影响也至关重要。但是移动是很难测量的，即使是一种植物或动物，特别是在生物经常移动和生物多样性保护发生的大片地区。这项研究使用了迄今为止几乎不可能做到的新技术——测量不同植物和动物物种的长距离运动。首先，它使用了一种新颖的技术，用富氮“标记”整个群落，这可以用来跟踪群落中暴露于源氮的任何生物的运动。其次，分散将在一个独特的、大规模的、复制良好的景观实验中被量化，这个实验在规模和寿命上都是前所未有的，用于测试走廊的影响，走廊是连接其他孤立的栖息地斑块的薄薄的栖息地带。研究人员将测量50种植物和动物在不同连通性景观中的分布情况。这项研究对于有效的保护很重要，因为它将测量栖息地破碎化在多大程度上降低了动植物物种在景观中移动的能力，以及野生动物走廊在多大程度上帮助生物在破碎的景观中移动。走廊被认为是帮助解决栖息地丧失和破碎化造成的许多问题的最重要工具之一。走廊可能为动植物提供高速公路，随着气候变化，预计交通流量会增加，允许生物根据需要改变它们的活动范围。该项目将通过研究和一个屡获殊荣的合作项目的延续来培养本科生，该项目的重点是指导特别多样化的学生；支持向贫困青年提供环境教育的K-12项目；维护科学基础设施（世界上最大的栖息地走廊实验）；并提供一个关于生物如何对走廊做出反应的长期数据库。

Movement is a fundamental property of nearly all life on earth. The need to move is driven by a variety of requirements, including escape from harsh weather, establishment of populations in new places, and procurement of food and mates. Understanding and predicting the extent of movement is critical for knowing why and how organisms occur where they do. It is also essential for forecasting impacts of habitat alteration and climate change on biodiversity. But movement is difficult to measure, even for one species of plant or animal and particularly at the large areas over which organisms regularly move and biodiversity conservation occurs. This study uses novel techniques to do what has so far been nearly impossible - to measure movement over long distances for a diverse group of plant and animal species. First, it uses a novel technique, 'tagging' entire communities with enriched nitrogen, which can be used to track the movement of any organism in the community exposed to that source nitrogen. Second, dispersal will be quantified in a unique, large-scale, well-replicated, landscape experiment - one that is unprecedented in its size and longevity for testing effects of corridors, thin strips of habitat that connect otherwise isolated habitat patches. The investigators will measure dispersal for 50 species of plants and animals across landscapes that vary in connectivity.This study is important for effective conservation because it will measure the extent to which habitat fragmentation reduces the ability of plant and animal species to move through a landscape, and the extent to which wildlife corridors help organisms move across fragmented landscapes. Corridors are considered to be one of the most important tools available to help solve the many problems caused by habitat loss and fragmentation. Corridors may provide superhighways for plants and animals, and are expected to see increased traffic as climate changes, allowing organisms to shift their ranges as needed. This project will train undergraduate students through research and through the continuation of an award-winning collaborative program focused on mentoring an especially diverse set of students; support a K-12 program that provides environmental education to underprivileged youth; maintain scientific infrastructure (the world's largest experiment on habitat corridors); and provide a long-term database on how organisms respond to corridors.